Current Affairs – January 12, 2018

In a major digital initiative to help plan the traffic flows and optimize freight operations, Ministry of Railways has launched Smart Freight Operation Optimisation & Real Time Information (SFOORTI) App for Freight Managers which provides features for monitoring and managing freight business using Geographic Information System (GIS) Views and Dashboard.

Salient features of SFOORTI Application are as below:
1. With this application, movement of freight trains on Geographic Information System (GIS) view can be tracked.
2. Both passenger and freight trains can be tracked over Zones/Divisions/ Sections in single GIS View.
3. Freight business can be monitored.
4. Comparative Analysis of Zonal/Divisional Traffic.
5. Analysis of new traffic captured and traffic lost.
6. This app provides a Bird’s eye view of all Freight Assets in a single window.

Harjinder Singh appointed Chef De Mission for 23rd Winter Olympics

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) appointed Harjinder Singh as the Chef De Mission for the 23rd Winter Olympic Games to be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea in February 2018. Harjinder Singh is at present the General Secretary in the Ice Hockey Association of India. The current IOA President is Narinder Dhruv Batra.

Jeff Bezos is the richest person in the world: Bloomberg

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon has become the richest man in the history, overtaking the wealth Bill Gates ever had to his name, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The Index showed that Bezos’ net worth had hit USD 105.1 billion. According to Forbes’ tracker, most of Bezos’ wealth comes from his 78.9 million shares of Amazon stock. According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the richest people in the world are Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckerberg, Amancio Ortega. The index mentions Mukesh Ambani as the richest Indian and the 20th richest person in the world. Ambani’s net worth is USD 41.2 billion. Lakshmi Mittal is on the 44th spot with a net worth of USD 20.9 billion.

Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and South Korea sign agreement for cooperation

An official delegation from South Korea and the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) signed an MoU for co-operation between industries in Gujarat and the East Asian country, with a focus on automobile, defence and textiles sectors. The main objective of the MoU is to help Gujarat-based small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to explore opportunities through joint ventures with South Korean firms, especially in areas of automobile, defence and textiles.

UIDAI introduces Virtual ID for Aadhar

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has introduced a concept of ‘Virtual ID’ to further strengthen privacy and security of Aadhaar number holders. The Aadhaar number holder can use ‘Virtual ID’ in place of an Aadhaar number whenever authentication or KYC services are performed. Aadhaar card holder can generate the Virtual ID from UIDAI website and give for various purposes, including SIM card verification, instead of sharing the actual 12-digit biometric ID. The Virtual ID will be a temporary and revocable 16 digit random number mapped to a person’s Aadhaar number.

India tops domestic air travel demand in the world

Global aviation body the International Air Transport Association has said that India’s domestic air passenger traffic grew by 16.4 percent in November last year, topping the growth chart worldwide. The IATA, comprising major air carriers, said India continued to witness double-digit growth for the 39th consecutive month. Globally, the total revenue passenger kilometers increased 8 percent compared to November 2016, the fastest growth rate in five months. The available seat kilometers (ASKs) grew by 6.3 per cent. The ASKs for India was at 10.4 percent, second only to China where capacity grew by 12.9 per cent.

12th January 2018- 155th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda

Nation is celebrating the 155th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda on the 12th January. One of the greatest spiritual leaders of India Swami Vivekananda had introduced Indian philosophies of Vedanta and yoga to the western world. He became popular in the western world after his famous speech at the World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893. He was the chief disciple of the 19th-century Indian mystic Ramakrishna and founder of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission.